By John Eggerton, Multichannel News, 9-22-20 The National Association of Broadcasters has launched a campaign to celebrate the 231st anniversary (Sept. 25) of the passage of the constitutional amendments that became the Bill of Rights, particularly the First Amendment that guaranteed free speech and a free press. The campaign focuses on the key role [...]

By John Eggerton, Multichannel News, 9-22-20 The Federal Trade Commission and Department of Justice are seeking comment on a couple of proposed changes to the automatic Hart Scott Rodino (HSR) antitrust reviews, which are required of large mergers (ones valued at at least $94 million). The FTC and DOJ divide up antitrust reviews, with [...]

By John Eggerton, Multichannel News, 9-21-20 Top House Democrats are pushing back on a Defense Department request for information (RFI) on creating a government-owned 5G network.  At last week's FCC oversight hearing, none of the five commissioners supported the prospect of such a nationalized network, something House Energy & Commerce Committee Chairman Rep. Frank [...]

By John Eggerton, Multichannel News, 9-21-20 Cable operator ISPs are telling the FCC it needs to prioritize protections for sensitive business information when it collects new broadband data per Congress's Broadband DATA Act, which means not requiring it to be reported "at this time." That came in comments to the FCC Friday (Sept. 18). [...]

By John Eggerton, Multichannel News, 9-18-20 Republican Federal Trade Commissioner Noah Phillips said the government should not rush into national privacy legislation. That came in an interview for C-SPAN's Communicators series. Phillips has repeatedly said to Congress that privacy means different things to different people. For some he said it meant control of their [...]

By John Eggerton, Multichannel News, 9-18-20 Big Tech has come under fire in Washington for not sufficiently policing its content. The hearing, “Mainstreaming Extremism: Social Media’s Role in Radicalizing America," will be held Sept. 24 at 11 a.m. via Cisco Webex video conference. No witnesses have been announced, but if they are from social media [...]

By John Eggerton, Multichannel News, 9-17-20 California Attorney General Xavier Becerra has filed the state's opposition to the Trump Administration's request for a preliminary injunction to block California's net neutrality law from going into effect. Enforcement is "on hold," as Becerra's office points out, until the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eastern District [...]

By John Eggerton, Multichannel News, 9-17-20 The FCC oversight hearing Thursday (Sept. 17) is entitled "Trump FCC: Four Years or Lost Opportunities," but FCC chairman Ajit Pai, a lead witness in the Democrat-led House Energy & Commerce Committee Communications Subcommittee clearly doesn't see it that way. In his prepared testimony, Pai talks about the [...]

By John Eggerton, Multichannel News, 9-17-20 The Consumer Technology Association said the Trump Administration's attempt to regulate online platforms that host third-party content would send the message to other countries that the U.S. is willing to regulate speech "if it offends the politically powerful." One of the most prominent and powerful of those would-be [...]

By John Eggerton, Multichannel News, 9-17-20 A hearing in the House Communications Subcommittee that was advertised as a Democratic attack on (and expected Republican defense of) the FCC panned out as expected, with the Democrats using the hearing to make it clear it was also an indictment of President Trump as he seeks to [...]